Systems and methods for interfacing between a sales management system and a project planning system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12112286-B2
Application number	US-202218079376-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2022
Priority date	Dec 9, 2014
Publication date	Oct 8, 2024
Grant date	Oct 8, 2024

Abstract

The present disclosure facilitates interfacing between a sales management system and a project planning system. In some embodiments, the system includes an interface and schedule engine, both executing on a server. The interface can parse a sales order from the sales management system into products and project tasks within the products. The products can also include at least one of a labor product, a parts product, and an agreements product. The schedule engine can generate schedule tasks corresponding to the project tasks, determine a performance order of the schedule tasks, and combine the schedule tasks into schedule phases based on the performance order. The schedule engine can determine a performance order of the schedule phases and combine the schedule phases into a schedule component based on the performance order. The interface can transmit the schedule component to the project planning system for execution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of interfacing between a sales management system and a project planning system, comprising:
parsing, by a schedule engine executing on one or more processors of a server, a first data record including a sales order to identify a first product and a second product of the sales order, the first data record received from a sales management system by an interface executing on the server, wherein:
the first product includes a first project task and a second project task; and
the second product includes a third project task, and at least one of a labor product, a parts product, and an agreements product;

generating, by the schedule engine, a first schedule task corresponding to the first project task, and a second schedule task corresponding to the second project task;
determining, by the schedule engine, a first order of performance between the first schedule task and the second schedule task;
creating, by the schedule engine, a first schedule phase having the first schedule task and the second schedule task combined based on the first order of performance;
generating, by the schedule engine, a second schedule phase with a third schedule task corresponding to the third project task, the second schedule phase including the at least one of the labor product, the parts product, and the agreements product;
determining, by the schedule engine, a second order of performance between the first schedule phase and the second schedule phase;
creating, by the schedule engine, a schedule component stored in a second data record having the first schedule phase and the second schedule phase based on the second order of performance; and
transmitting, by the interface, the second data record storing the schedule component to the project planning system for delivery of the sales order.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring the schedule component stored in the second data record for search capability.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a search index for the schedule component stored in the second data record; and
storing the search index in a third data record.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the interface executing on the server from the project planning system, an indication of a change to the schedule component; and
transmitting, by the interface to the sales management system, responsive to the indication, information about the change to the schedule component to initiate an update to the sales order.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the interface executing on the server from the project planning system, an indication of a change to the schedule component;
comparing, by the server, the indication with the sales order received from the sales management system;
determining, by the server responsive to the comparing, to update the sales order based on the indication; and
transmitting, to the sales management system by the interface executing on the server,
responsive to the determining, information about the change to the schedule component to initiate an update to the sales order.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by an estimation engine executing on the server, a first quote component based on the first project task and second project task associated with the first product, and a second quote component based on the third project task and the at least one of the labor product, the parts product, and the agreements product associated with the second product; and
combining, by the estimation engine, the first quote component and the second quote component to create a quote.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by an estimation engine executing on the server, a first quote component based on the first schedule task and second schedule task associated with the first schedule phase, and a second quote component based on the third schedule task; and
combining, by the estimation engine, the first component and the second quote component to create a quote for the schedule component.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, via the server, a quote for the sales order;
receiving, by the interface executing on the server, an indication of a modification to the quote;
updating, by the schedule engine executing on the server, the schedule component responsive to the indication of the modification to the quote; and
transmitting, to the sales management system by the interface executing on the server, responsive to the updating, information about the updating of the schedule component to initiate an update to the sales order.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, via the interface executing on the server, a quote for the sales order;
receiving, by the interface, an indication to reduce the quote;
removing, by the schedule engine executing on the server, a portion of the schedule component responsive to the indication to reduce the quote; and
transmitting, to the sales management system by the interface executing on the server, responsive to the removing, information about the removing of the portion of the schedule component to initiate an update to the sales order.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing, by the schedule engine, a first duration for the first schedule phase and a second duration for the second schedule phase; and
appending the first duration and the second duration to the second data record storing the schedule component.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
parsing, from the first project task, a description, a parts component, an estimated time, a billing method, and a resource assignment;
generating, based on the description, a name;
generating, based on the parts component, a resource reference;
generating, based on the estimated time, a schedule duration;
generating, based on the billing method, a schedule billing method;
selecting, based on the resource assignment, a personnel reference; and
associating the resource reference, the schedule duration, the schedule billing method, and the personnel reference with the first schedule task.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the first order of performance between the first schedule task and the second schedule task based on at least one of:
a manually assigned sequence included in the first data record;
a sequence included in a template associated with the first data record;
a dependency between the first schedule task and the second schedule task, the dependency included in the first data record;
a first resource assignment associated with the first schedule task and a second resource assignment, same as the first resource assignment, associated with the second schedule task, the first order of performance chosen to avoid simultaneous use of the first resource assignment and the second resource assignment; and
a default sequence determined by the scheduling engine.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
parsing, by the schedule engine, the second product;
generating, by the schedule engine responsive to the second product including the labor product, a fourth schedule task based on the labor product;
determining, by the schedule engine, a third order of performance between the third schedule task and the fourth schedule task; and
combining, by the schedule engine, the third schedule task and the fourth schedule task based on the third order of performance to create the second schedule phase.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the schedule c

Assignees

• Connectwise Llc
• Connect Wise Llc

Inventors

• Bellini Iii Arnold
• Brotherton Linda
• Isaacs Robert

Classifications

• G06Q30/0635

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/063118 Primary

  Staff planning in a project environment · CPC title